May 12, 2011

Writing focus: how to get it, lose it, and get it back

Even though I wrote a book on focus ("Focus: how to use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," Pearson Publishing), from time to time I lose my own focus. It's a natural consequence of being interested in a lot of things, and I have a hunch it has happened to you as well---or will.

In business and military parlance one version of this is "mission creep"--you start out wanting to achieve one thing, one mission, and gradually you add more and more and before you know it, you're all over the place.

For the past few weeks I've had the feeling I'm not really moving forward very quickly on anything so I stopped and took stock and made a list of everything I was trying to get done.

The list is far too long. The result is that although I was making some progress on most things, there were so many that it didn't feel like there was much movement on any one thing.

The solution is to set priorities. Again. Unfortunately this is not something we do once and it's set forever. Focus is a process and it's a normal part of that process to go off course. The important thing is to become aware of losing focus and doing whatever is necessary to regain it. For us creative types that means putting aside some things we would like to do. As somebody pointed out, you can do everything--just not all at once.

If your writing focus has gotten blurry, too, feel free to join me: stop, take stock, prioritise, and get back to work!

(You can get "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done" from Amazon and other online and offline retailers now.)

Comments

Writing focus: how to get it, lose it, and get it back

Even though I wrote a book on focus ("Focus: how to use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," Pearson Publishing), from time to time I lose my own focus. It's a natural consequence of being interested in a lot of things, and I have a hunch it has happened to you as well---or will.

In business and military parlance one version of this is "mission creep"--you start out wanting to achieve one thing, one mission, and gradually you add more and more and before you know it, you're all over the place.

For the past few weeks I've had the feeling I'm not really moving forward very quickly on anything so I stopped and took stock and made a list of everything I was trying to get done.

The list is far too long. The result is that although I was making some progress on most things, there were so many that it didn't feel like there was much movement on any one thing.

The solution is to set priorities. Again. Unfortunately this is not something we do once and it's set forever. Focus is a process and it's a normal part of that process to go off course. The important thing is to become aware of losing focus and doing whatever is necessary to regain it. For us creative types that means putting aside some things we would like to do. As somebody pointed out, you can do everything--just not all at once.

If your writing focus has gotten blurry, too, feel free to join me: stop, take stock, prioritise, and get back to work!

(You can get "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done" from Amazon and other online and offline retailers now.)